CLEP German Language study guide
CLEP German Language · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The CLEP German Language: Levels 1 and 2 exam is a standardized proficiency test that lets you earn college credit for German without enrolling in a course. It is aimed at candidates who have acquired skills across multiple semesters of study - roughly the equivalent of two to three semesters of college German - whether through coursework, a bilingual upbringing, or extended residence in a German-speaking country. The CLEP German Language study guide has 5 sections and about 2,533 words.
01Listening - Rejoinders
The rejoinder tasks open the CLEP German Listening section: you hear one short spoken utterance - a question, a request, an invitation, a complaint, an exclamation - and choose the reply a German speaker would most naturally give. Roughly twenty items test pragmatic competence rather than translation.
477 words, about 2 min02Listening - Dialogues and Narratives
The second listening part plays short dialogues and longer narratives or monologues - everyday situations, announcements, brief anecdotes - each followed by a question about main idea, detail, speaker relationship, tone, or what happens next. The questions and options are printed, so you can read ahead and know which information to hunt for.
521 words, about 3 min03Reading - Part A. Discrete Sentences
The first reading part gives about thirty single sentences, each with one blank and four options. There is no extended context, so the sentence itself must contain everything needed to decide.
514 words, about 3 min04Reading - Part B. Short Cloze Passages
Part B presents several short passages, each with numbered blanks and four choices per blank. Unlike Part A, the deciding evidence may sit in another sentence, so this part tests cohesion: reference, connectors, tense sequencing, and vocabulary that fits the paragraph's topic.
510 words, about 3 min05Reading - Part C. Reading Comprehension
The final reading part presents longer texts - newspaper and magazine articles, literary excerpts, letters, advertisements, and public notices - each followed by several questions. Items ask for the main idea, a specific detail, an inference, the author's attitude, or the meaning of a word in context.
511 words, about 3 min